


Whispers of the Past

by Cinlat



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Original Character(s), Past and Present, Planet Tatooine (Star Wars), commission piece
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27502378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinlat/pseuds/Cinlat
Summary: When Emeraulde tracks her target across the sands of Tatooine, she’s surprised to find more than just a bounty. This one has a plan.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Whispers of the Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chaosandwonder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaosandwonder/gifts).



> Meet @chaosandwonder's lovely bounty hunter Emeraulde. She commissioned me to write a story about when her hunter took on Gault as a companion, but with the added look into a particular part of her past. Honestly, I’ve been wanting to write one of these for a long time and hadn’t found a muse. Naturally, I was stoked to try. Then, I got to know Emeraulde, and I really do love her. Chaos has graciously given me permission to post her story for others to read too.
> 
> Rating: G  
> Word Count: 4,803

Tatooine’s twin suns drifted across the cloudless sky. For three days Emeraulde had trekked over the windswept dunes with only goggles and a face scarf to protect her nose and mouth from the stinging sand. Given that each day had led to another dead end, she didn’t expect much different from this morning. 

Having sent Mako back to the ship to repair her implants after Lokai’s stun grenades, Emeraulde carried on, hoping that her time on this planet would end soon. The woman hated the heat of the Tatooine desert, and she wasn’t fond of the drastic dip in temperature at the end of the day, either. A planet should have balance, predictable climates depending on the time, not a drastic swing between scorching day and frigid night. 

Sand plumed in dry clouds around Emeraulde’s boots, exaggerated by the drag of her left leg. Her bones felt liquidy and muscles sluggish from the residual effects of Lokai’s ambush, but at least the shielding on her implants had done its job. As if to affirm her relief, Emeraulde’s biometric scanner pinged a weak signal sixty meters to the south east. Heart thumping with anticipation, she bent her knees and crept up the side of the dune.

_ “See that, girl?” Emeraulde stretched along the limb of a tree in the mountain range flanking Oradam Village. Her father's comforting presence anchored them both while he instructed Emeraulde on how to track prey. In a hushed tone, he corrected the way she held the small rifle so that the kick wouldn’t knock them from their perch. “Breathe and pick your moment. Watch for a pattern in your prey’s responses and use that to your advantage. Never rush, or you’ll lose it for sure.” _

A cool sense of calm slowed Emeraulde’s heart rate as she picked her way through the sand. It shifted when she moved too quickly, lengthening the distance between her and the peak of the dune. Tyresius Lokai wasn’t like the tree rats back home. He was crafty, deadly. The tightness in her chest reminded Emeraulde that she wasn’t alone. Her father had given her the skills needed to finish this competition and gain some recognition for herself. She would rise out of her brothers’ shadows with a Great Hunt win. That accomplishment would be solely hers. 

Colorful swearing made Emeraulde pull up short. Crouching lower, she crested the top of the dune and saw a shadow stretching beneath the belly of a shuttle. The metallic ring of something beating against the control panel echoed across the sands. Pulling the scarf away from her mouth and nose, Emeraulde attuned her implants to the sound, filtering out the wind to confirm her target. The figure darted inside the waiting shuttle, then bounded out with a cloud of smoke and sparks on his heels.

Unclipping her blaster from its holster, Emeraulde crept through a rocky gorge towards the sound of unskilled labor. Tyresius Lokai had come so far, only to foul up his escape attempt at the end.  _ There’s an ironic justice to that _ , Emeraulde thought. If the acrid stench of burning electronics was any indication, the Devaronian had nowhere else to flee. 

_ The sun streamed through tree branches, lighting the forest floor with puddles of light. It had been months since Emeraulde had gone hunting with her family, choosing instead to stay behind and bond with their newest members. Father had remarried after too long in loneliness. Opal was a good woman who showed Emeraulde what it meant to have a mother. She accepted her as one of her own, treating her no differently than the two daughters she’d given birth to. Emeraulde’s age fell in between her siblings’, older than the girls, yet younger than her brothers. She’d wanted to prove that she had a place in both worlds, that she mattered.  _

_ “Pay attention, girl.” Her father’s sharp tone snapped Emeraulde back to the hunt. They’d found a trail, creeping along in search of their prey. The wrong movement, the snap of a twig, could ruin hours of tracking. Tanzine motioned for Emeraulde to follow while her brothers broke away to circle around. Her heart pounded against her ribs, the too loud thumping drowning out everything else in the forest. They’d be on it soon, filling her with a mixture of dread and adrenaline. Her father’s hand rested on her shoulder, encouraging her to breathe through the flood of emotions and focus only on the hunt. _

When Emeraulde had crept as close as she dared, she ventured a peek over a boulder jutting from the sand. Tyresius stood beside the damaged shuttle, beating a portable computer console with a wrench while cursing the day it had been manufactured. Silently, Emeraulde blew the air from her lungs, loosening her muscles while she counted down to the moment she’d advance.

Apart from a lone droid, Emeraulde’s scans showed no other activity or life sign. Her implants registered that the shuttle gave off a null energy signal, setting the stage for a perfect capture. Still, her stomach tightened with an uncomfortable hunch that this was all too easy. Tyresius had led Emeraudle across the entire wasteland of a planet, crafting his own traps and snares to evade her. This string of inexplicable bad luck now felt like a setup.

_ Don’t second guess your shot, _ Emeraulde’s father whispered in the back of her mind.  _ You might not get another. _ Even parsecs away, Tanzine watched over his daughter. Only the quiet scrape of metal against leather announced Emeraulde’s presence. Her blaster cleared its holster with smooth precision as she stepped into the waning light of Tatooine’s twin suns. “End of the line, Tyresius.”

The Devaronian yelped, a high pitched noise that made Emeraulde pause. That was not the sound of the suave scoundrel that she’d met in the spaceport. Had she not been so annoyed about being dragged across the desert planet, Emeraulde might have managed a laugh. As it stood, she was hot, covered in sand, and ready to go home. 

Clutching at his chest, Tyresius braced his other hand against the console he’d been abusing. “You are the most persistent bounty hunter I’ve ever met.” Emeraulde twitched her blaster to indicate that she wanted both hands fully in view. Tyresius complied, raising them shoulder height and tipped his head to the side with the broken horn. “You’ve got to tell me. What’s your secret?”

_ “Blast, I’ve lost the trail.” Emeraulde’s father sighed, hands on hips, while he kicked at the leaves littering the forest floor. One, large hand rubbed at the back of his neck when he looked down at her. “Guess we’ll have to backtrack a bit.” _

_ “Can’t we go forward until we find something?” Emeraulde bounced on her toes, the thrill of the hunt singing in her veins. Backtracking could take hours, and by then, their prey might have slipped off. _

_ Tanzine ruffled Emeraulde’s hair, but his attention was elsewhere. “We could take the wrong path and travel miles out of our way. No, going back is the answer.” When she huffed, he chuckled. “Patience is key, darling. Patience and persistence.”  _

“I had a good teacher,” Emeraulde answered. Had her father not fostered the ability to turn a loss for her benefit, she’d have never made it past the Lady of Pain when Tyresius pulled his disappearing act. 

The Devaronian snorted and flapped both hands in Emeraulde’s direction. “They’d be so proud.” His yellow gaze drifted over the dunes, no doubt searching for something to use to his advantage.

Emeraulde tightened her grip on the blaster, then forced her fingers to relax before she could react too quickly. Erring on the side of caution, Emeraulde tapped one of the implants near her ear. “Mako, I’ve got the target, bring the ship to my location.” The comm implant had been an upgrade that seemed frivolous at the time, until she learned how much easier a job went with someone watching her back.

Mako came across the comms, voice breathy with excitement. “Really? Think he’ll bolt again?”

“Not if he wants to live.” Tyresius rolled his eyes at the threat, then gestured at the hunk of junk behind him. Emeraulde finally smirked. “He’ll be here, but maybe hurry.”

“You got it, boss.” Mako clicked off, and Emeraulde’s implants informed her that the Mantis’s engines had been activated. Diagnostic readouts would be flitting across the datapad that she kept synced between her equipment, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off the Devaronian long enough to check them.

Tyresius took a step towards Emeraulde, then stopped when her blaster lifted. Hands aloft, he wiggled his fingers. “How about a proposition?” Emeraulde’s brow rose, but when she didn’t object, Tyresius paced back and forth while keeping his hands in view. A perfunctory scan indicated no obvious weapons on him, but they hadn't caught the explosive hidden in his horn upon first meetings. “Look, give me a job, spare my life, and I’ll dedicate it to working for you. How’s that sound?”

Of all the things that Emeraulde expected to come out of Tyresius’s mouth, that was the last. A bitten off laugh escaped the confines of her control until she realized that he was serious. Tyresius Lokai expected an honest response to his ludicrous request. Emeraulde couldn’t keep indignation from lacing her words. “Why in the galaxy would I ever trust you, Tyresius?”

“Boss?” Mako’s voice interrupted whatever Tyresius was about to say, and Emeraulde held up a finger to forestall whatever lie he’d concocted.

“Go ahead, Mako.” Emeraulde watched Tyresius kick around in the dirt while she waited. The sound of her ship’s engines answered for the younger woman, and Emeraulde spared a glance towards the sky as the Mantis zipped overhead. When she pulled her attention back to Tyresius, Emeraulde didn’t like the way he studied her craft.

The Mantis wasn’t glamorous. Between herself and Mako’s efforts, they’d finally managed to clean most of the graffiti off the ship she’d stolen on Dromund Kaas and applied paint to areas where rust had set in. A few more months of hard work, and the ship might look new again. Or at least, less like a run down piece of bantha dwang.

Mako circled above, bringing their transport in for a sketchy landing. Though she was a girl of many talents, piloting was not one of them. The recently acquired skill hadn’t been learned on the easiest ship. Emeraulde mentally shifted that closer to the top of her to do list. One never knew when having a backup pilot could make all the difference.

Finally, the Mantis thumped to the ground, forcing both Emeraulde and Tyresius to shield their eyes from the sand spray that scattered in the ship’s wake. Tyresius made exaggerated coughing sounds while the ramp extended. His expression hardened when Mako appeared with a set of shock cuffs and the sort of triumphant grin that Emeraulde had worn as a child when she’d beaten one of her brothers in a foot race.

“So,” Emeraulde began, forcing her attention away from her hunting partner to the target they’d chased all over this Force-be-damned planet. “You were about to explain to me why I shouldn’t let Mako cuff you, then put you in a holding tank until I’m done with this competition.”

“We could always just shoot him,” Mako suggested while scratching at her implants. Emeraulde had been lucky that her own could be hidden beneath a headscarf, thus protecting the intricate circuitry from the grating sand that had worked into Mako’s. 

Emeraulde shrugged and looked at Tyresius for the answer. She wasn’t sure why she was allowing him to speak. By all rights, Emeraulde should hit Tyresius with the cryo weapon and be done with it. Something in her gut, a small voice whispering in the back of her mind, stayed Emeraulde’s hand.

“Hold on,” the Devaronian started, both hands making placatory circles as he backed away from the women. “Just, listen to reason.”

“Never tell a woman to listen to reason,” Mako snipped, taking a step closer to taunt Tyresius with the cuffs.

To show her agreement, Emeraulde jerked the barrel of her blaster in indication that whatever the Devaronian had to say, he’d best get on with it. Tyresius lowered his arms with a sigh, attention fixed on the sand and fists clenched. “I’m tired of running.”

“What’s that?” Emeraulde asked when the mumbled words didn’t fully reach her.

Tyresius blew out a breath, rubbing at the back of his neck. Emeraulde shared a speculative glance with Mako and tightened her grip on the blaster. She let the barrel dip marginally towards the sand, curious about what tale the Devaronian would spin this time. 

“My fortune’s gone,” Tyresius grumbled, kicking at the sand again. His mouth twisted in a grimace that made him look every bit the demon that people accused Devaronions of being. “Everyone still wants me dead.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Mako muttered under her breath. Emeraulde permitted herself a smirk, but didn’t comment.

Tyresius carried on, either having not heard Mako’s jab or choosing to ignore it. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to be hunted everywhere you go?” He stopped and gestured around them, then at himself. “I mean, you chased me out to possibly the deadest place in the galaxy. If I can’t hide here, what’s the point of going on?” 

Emeraulde saw no reason to interrupt. The argument made sense, but she stopped short of feeling sorry for him. Tyresius had gotten himself into this mess. Finally, the Devaronian dropped his hands. “I want Tyresius Lokai dead as much as anyone.”

Emeraulde’s brow lifted, and Tyresius managed a chuckle. “Well, almost anyone.” The irritation from moments ago vanished beneath the used-speeder-salesman facade that Emeraulde encountered when she’d first arrived on Tatooine. “What if I told you there’s a duplicate of yours truly, a replica, if you will; identical in all respects. It’ll even fool a bioscan.”

“I’d say gross,” Mako answered, lip curled.

Emeraulde cleared her throat. “You...made a copy of yourself.” She pressed her lips together, biting back a laugh and leaning closer to Mako to whisper in mock secrecy. “One was bad enough.”

“Don’t knock it until you try it.” The wink that accompanied Tyresius’s grin gave him a debonair aura that Emeraulde reminded herself not to be taken in by. “My duplicate is already dead, frozen in carbonite. Just pretend he’s me. Once I’m declared your worthy bounty, I’ll put my legendary skills, savvy, and contacts at your disposal. Imagine what we could accomplish.”

Emeraulde shifted her weight, letting her blaster drop while she considered Tyresius’s plan. He was a skilled conman and thief. If she turned his talents towards her own endeavors, it could cut their workload in half. Emeraulde knew that she needed every advantage she could find to win the Great Hunt against legendary competitors and Mandalorians. Still, he could swindle her, adding her name to the list of people who already wanted him dead. 

Lifting her blaster again, Emeraulde pinned Tyresius with a threatening glare. “I see a lot of trouble in my future if I keep you around.” If he was recognized while they were in port on another planet, she’d either be forced to admit that she’d cheated and be kicked out of the competition, or defend him. Neither option appealed to her sense of wellbeing.

The Devaronian’s grin widened as he made a dismissive gesture with his hands. “Trouble is just another word for opportunity, and _that,_ my cantankerous friend, leads to profit.”

“I hate to say it,” Mako hedged from Emeraulde’s left. She’d been on the verge of a giggling fit since Tyresius suggested the plan. Now, her expression turned pensive. Mako waved at their quarry with a shrug, and Emeraulde knew what the girl was going to say before the words left her lips. “Having him on our team might prove useful. You and I are running ourselves into the ground trying to chase every lead at once. His skeevy reputation has given him contacts that we don’t have.”

“Skeevy? That’s a little harsh,” Tyresius grumbled, but Emeraulde ignored him while her thoughts spiraled back to her past. A turning point where she’d followed logic instead of instinct.

_ Emeraulde stood next to the razoronn, congratulating her brothers on their kill. It was a fair sized female that would provide enough meat for a month. Not their intended game, but Pieter had taken the shot when the opportunity presented itself. He grinned like a fool, celebrating his first kill without their father looking over his shoulder.  _

_ “Well done, my boy.” Tanzine slapped his youngest son on the back, gripping his shoulder and offering a small shake while they laughed. It was then that Emeraulde caught movement in the brush. A simple flash of something through a sunbeam, definitely organic. _

_ Stepping lightly, Emeraulde slipped away from her family to peer into the dense foliage. Her mind refused to accept what curled beneath the leaves, then her heart shattered as tears traced tracks through the dirt on her cheeks. The razoronn calf couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old, certainly not strong enough to survive on its own. _

_ Emeraulde straightened and looked back at the creature laying still at her brother’s feet. He couldn’t have known that it was a mother, that _ _ another life depended on her _ _. Swallowing, Emeraulde faced the calf and wondered if it would survive the trek down the mountain so that she could care for it. Plans began to form on how to convince her new mother that they should keep it. Surely Amber would stand by her side, the girl loved animals more than people. If they agreed, then father would-- _

_ “What’s snagged your attention, little--” Tanzine’s words faded into a whispered curse when he reached Emeraulde’s side. His fists rested against his hips as he too stared at the orphan they’d created. “Damn shame. Wish we’d known.” He ran one hand through his hair with a sigh. “This’ll kill your brother.” _

_ “Can’t we help it?” Emeraulde asked, looking up at her father through blurry eyes. “Take it home, or, or, find some other creature to adopt it?” _

_ Emeraulde knew the answer before her father placed kind hands on her shoulders. “It’s too late, Em. We have to allow nature to work as it sees fit. Life isn’t always fair, and sometimes we can change that. This time, it’s out of our hands.” He tugged one shoulder, turning her away from the calf and into a darker world than she’d woken up to. _

When Emeraulde came back to herself, Tyresius and Mako were arguing about whether or not he could have a private room next to the engine compartment. As she watched, Tanzine’s words returned.  _ Sometimes, we can change that. _ Emeraulde couldn’t right every wrong in the galaxy, but maybe small differences would add up. So far as she knew, no one had offered Tyresius a chance, so he’d taken what he wanted and called it his due.

Emeraulde cleared her throat. “What assurances can you give me that you won’t run?”

The bickering stopped, both looking at Emeraulde like she’d lost her mind. Tyresius recovered first, spreading his hands wide in a gesture of friendship. “My word,” Tyresius answered, disregarding Mako’s pointed glare at the broken horn he’d used to slip through their grasp already. Tyresius took two steps towards Emeraulde, yellow eyes flicking to the blaster still in her hand. “I’m safer as your partner than as a fugitive. Even if I did escape, you’d just find me again. Honestly, who wants to have this conversation twice?” 

Emeraulde snorted a laugh despite herself. Mako gave the Devaronian a wide berth as she moved to stand by Emeraulde with arms crossed. “We could always fit him with a slave collar until he learns to behave.”

The color faded from Tyresius’ face, leaving him comically pink. Emeraulde smirked and holstered her blaster. “No. I think we’ll let nature take its course, see what happens. Where is this doppelganger you’ve been carting around?”

“Right.” Tyresius clapped his hands and turned back towards the shuttle he’d been attempting to launch when Emeraulde had arrived. He waved for them to follow, missing the dubious expressions that passed between the women as they walked.

Tyresius palmed open the shuttle door, then beat on the hull when the ramp got stuck halfway down. Emeraulde waited at the bottom while he made noise inside. For a brief moment, she wondered at the wisdom of allowing Tyresius to enter a vessel alone, then something sparked and she realized it didn’t matter.

The grating of metal against metal made Emeraulde wince. Mako slapped her hands over her ears and shouted something that Emeraulde couldn’t make out. A tank appeared at the top of the ramp, tipped dangerously over the lip, then scraped down to flop at Emeraulde’s feet. She shielded her eyes, resisting the urge to cough.

“There’s my duplicate.” Tyresius jumped from the ramp to land next to the tank, slapping the dust from his hands. “It should only take a few moments to thaw him out.” 

Squatting, Tyresius tapped a complex sequence into the keypad on the side of the chamber, grumbled, then retyped the code. “Ah, there we go.”

While the chamber hummed, Tyreius straightened and joined Emaraulde and Mako. “It’ll, uh, just take a moment.” Hydraulics hissed, then the door popped open with a flurry of steam. Tyresuis pulled it open the rest of the way and Mako hopped backward with a squeak when a red shape fell from within. 

The body slumped into the sand, face down with no attempts to slow its descent. Tyresius clapped his hands when Emeraulde rolled the lifeless Devaronian onto its back with the toe of her boot. “He’s a beauty, right?”

Emeraulde and Mako turned in unison to stare at Tyresius while he looked on with pride. Finally, Mako shook out her hands and made a cleansing gesture at the body. “On that note, I’m going back inside. Let me know when we’re ready to launch.” She patted Emeraulde’s shoulder with a sideways tilt of her mouth. “Have fun.” 

“Your loss,” Tyresius called after the girl’s retreating form. Mako waved without turning, dragging a chuckled from the Devaronian that sounded more endearing than Emeraulde expected. 

Back to business, Tyresius rested hands on hips. “Okay, so we need to make it look convincing.” He stepped over the body, adding a little hop to ensure that he cleared it, then waved at Emeraulde’s blaster. “Couple of shots should sell it. You want to do the honors?”

Though not normally one to mutilate corpses, whether they’d ever been alive or not, Emeraulde aimed her blaster at the figure on the ground. “Right between the eyes?” She needed to prove to Tyresius that she wasn’t someone he could scam and expect to continue breathing. Emeraulde squeezed the trigger, then added a couple of more to the chest for good measure.

Tyresius winced in Emeraulde’s peripheral with each shot. She tried not to take satisfaction in his reaction, or in the slight quiver in his voice when Tyresius laughed. “Oh my stars. I’m glad we decided to work together. Let me just, uh…”

Emeraulde holstered her blaster, a show of good faith so that the Devaronian would lower his hands. He stepped gingerly around the corpse, looking back once to shudder before jogging towards the shuttle he’d been attempting to launch. Emeraulde watched while Tyresius gathered his gear. It would be so easy to lure him aboard the ship, then snap the jaws of a light cell around him to collect the bounty. She could avoid all this subterfuge. 

“So, I’ve been thinking and I’m going to need a new name.” Emeraulde blinked out of her thoughts as Tyresius approached. He had a pack slung over one shoulder, easy smile in place. “After all, Tyresius Lokai  _ is _ dead.”

Satisfied that they were ready to depart, Emeraulde started for her ship. “Got anything in mind?”

Tyresius walked in silence until they reached the bottom of the ramp, eyes squinted into what was left of the second sun while he considered the options. “What do you think of Gault Rennow?”

Emeraulde’s boots struck the ramp with a heavy ring. Tyresius made less noise and she filed that away for later use. He was not only crafty, but naturally quiet. “You arrived at that one rather quickly.”

Shrugging, the Devaronian adjusted his pack and waited for Emeraulde to activate the airlock. “It has a nice ring to it.”

Emeraulde thought that there was probably more to the name choice than what  _ Gault _ would say, but decided to leave that for him to deal with. Perhaps one day, they’d be companionable enough to share such insights. “Sure,” she agreed, adding a smile now that they were sequestered in the safety of her world. “It’s kind of catchy.”

The acceptance seemed to loosen something within the Devaronian, his face appearing all the sharper for the massive grin it displayed. “Yeah. A fine name for an exciting new life. Say, what are you planning to do with that speeder?”

Emeraulde paused with her hand over the controls to raise the ramp and glanced back towards where she’d left the vehicle. It was rusted and the engine whined, but curiosity set Gault’s question in a new light. “Why?”

Gault lifted his hands, the strap of his bag hooked around one thumb. “I’m just saying it might come in handy.” Leaning forward to peek past Emeraude into the cargo hold, he snorted. “You’ve got room.”

As much as Emeraulde hated to admit it, having a speeder on hand would be nice. Even if it was a barely running sandcrawler. She could fix the rattle in the transmission, then add some upgrades...yeah, Gault was right. Rolling her eyes so that Gault didn’t puff up too much, Emeraulde waved a hand towards the sand outside. “Fine, but hurry up.”

Unwilling to chance Gault sneaking away, Emeraulde leaned against the bulkhead and watched him struggle to get the speeder started, then angle it slowly towards the  _ Mantis _ . She stepped aside to allow him to pull into the cargo hold before setting it to idle and stepping off. Together, they fixed it to an empty wall, then Emeraulde snagged the key card before Gault could. “I’ll hold onto this. Why don’t you find a bunk while I check in with Mako.”

“Where’s the trust?” Gault called after Emeraulde as she started up the stairs. She found it easier to think of him as this new persona, with the memory of Tyresius Lokai already sliding to the back of her mind.

“You big softy,” Mako muttered when Emeraulde topped the final stair. The girl had gotten comfortable, ditching her desert wear for something more suitable for a long flight.

With a chuckle, Emeraulde tossed her scarf and jacket over the banister and peeked over to see where Gault had wandered off to. She reached for the buckle on her holster, then decided to leave them on a little longer. “Got something?”

Leaning over the railing, Mako raised her voice. “I’ve got this entire ship wired to mine and Em’s implants. So don’t get any ideas, Pointy.” Gault sputtered from somewhere beneath, drawing a satisfied grin across Mako’s face. Taunting completed, she handed her datapad to Emeraulde. “We’ve got another hit. A duke on Alderaan that someone wants  _ bad _ .”

“How bad?” Emeraulde swiped through the minuscule details and felt her brows lift at the sum of credits attached. “That’s pretty bad.”

Gault appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “Did I hear the word  _ duke _ ?” Emeraulde hugged the datapad to her chest when he bounded up to join her and Mako. “I’ve got some contacts on Alderaan who don’t want me dead.  _ Republic  _ ones, at that.” 

Emeraulde and Mako shared a look, then she passed over the datapad. “What do you make of it?” While not being one to believe in destiny, Emeraulde couldn’t help but sense that she and Gault were meant to cross paths. She told herself that Gault wasn’t an orphaned razoronn in need of a home, but it was a kind lie. Maybe saving this one life could make amends for the one she’d let slip away all those years ago, before she understood what it meant to defy the odds.

Gault nodded, swiping his finger across the screen and began rambling about locations that Emeraulde had never heard of. When it was done, they had a workable starting point and a meeting with a Republic soldier who didn’t mind having his palm greased by anonymous parties. 

Patting Mako’s arm, Emeraulde started for the bridge. “Alright, gang, time to bag us a duke.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you are interested in commissions, you can find information on my Tumblr page.


End file.
